In the early years of telecommunications service, the various sites receiving telecommunications service for a given area were connected on a party line. Each individual site was not separately addressable, so individuals were required to share the line. Each individual site had a unique ring so that it could be determined whether an incoming call on the party line was for a particular site and the call could be answered by the correct party.
Advances in telecommunications service lead to individually addressable lines for each site within a given area. These private lines allow users to carry on private conversations at any time, regardless of whether others in the same area are also using their telephones. These private lines are established by a signal switching point (“SSP”) located within a central office, which is a local call station that provides the direct connections to the various sites receiving telecommunications service. This SSP may form a node on an Advanced Intelligence Network (“AIN”) that provides advanced services for telecommunications subscribers including individually addressable lines, call waiting, caller ID, and other features. Thus, the party line has been completely engineered out of the advanced telecommunications system.
While telecommunications users often prefer the ability to have a private telephone conversation with another individual, there are instances where a telecommunications subscriber may prefer to enter a chat forum, such as chat forums on the Internet where several people at different locations can carry on a conversation without necessarily setting up a special time and place as would be necessary for a conference telephone call. However, the telecommunications users may prefer to enter a chat forum simply by use of the telephone and may also prefer that the chat forum have some geographical relevance. However, such chat forums are not provided for on a current telecommunications network since the network provides for private lines instead of party lines.